Weicker, people of a certain age will recall, was the former Republican U.S. senator who showed the door to President Richard Nixon. Ousted by Joe Lieberman back in 1988, Weicker invented his own party for the 1990 gubernatorial election, during which he said a state income tax would be like pouring gasoline on a fire.

But the billion-dollar deficit Weicker inherited brought out his inner pyromaniac, so he forced a personal income tax on us all, putting into motion his retirement from politics.

Malloy, after 14 years as Stamford mayor, was met with a $3.4 billion deficit, which was the culmination of about a decade's worth of pushy Democratic majorities in the General Assembly along with Republican governors, including John G. Rowland, who will always be a convicted felon.

Malloy, who presided over the largest tax increase in state history in 2011, has never really stopped running for governor, except maybe after he raced to Newtown in December, taking charge of the state's response to the unthinkable aftermath of 20 murdered first-graders and six adults in Sandy Hook Elementary School.

His interpersonal skills are softer than Weicker's and the Quinnipiac Poll, if it shows anything, is that people are paying attention.

While equally divided on Malloy's education initiatives, registered voters disapprove of his handling of the budget by 55-35 percent; disapprove of his tax policy by 63-29 percent; disapprove of his economic policy by 57-35 percent.

"I think this is the slowest national recovery of any post-World War II recession measured by numbers of years longer than any other recovery," Malloy said the other day.

Voters are divided 47-47 on how he's handling his job, compared to the 54-33 percent disapproval rating for the General Assembly. Asked whether he deserves to be re-elected, voters said `no' by an inconsequential 46-44 percent, with a whopping 53 percent of unaffiliated voters siding against Malloy.

There's the key to 2014, by the way, whether you're Malloy or the field of Republicans, including Greenwich millionaire Tom Foley, Senate Minority Leader John McKinney of Fairfield, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton or House Minority Leader Larry Cafero of Norwalk. Even if you accept the Republican premise that a recent special election to fill a House seat from Tolland is a harbinger for disenchantment with Democrats, to win the governor's seat next year, the winner will need the unaffiliated.

But on the plus side, voters by 57-38 percent say Malloy has strong leadership qualities; and by 57-33 percent they believe he is "honest and trustworthy." It's an even divide, 47-47, on whether he cares about your problems.

It's tough to get the governor to comment on the poll, but on Friday, Capitol reporters caught him out a little, especially grabbing a life preserver: the 36,700 private-sector jobs created since he took office.

"We're trying to build an economy in Connecticut that's supportive of job growth," he said. "We are creating jobs at a faster clip than has been seen in decades." State labor figures indicate that 26,000 of the jobs were created in 2011 and 2012.

"When we point out to people that we've created 36,000 jobs, they're all surprised," he said. "The rough belief out there is that we have not created any jobs. We've created 36,000 private sector jobs at the same time we have shrunk government. I think our policies have absolutely contributed to job growth in Connecticut."

Asked to comment directly on the poll, Malloy recalled that at this time in 2010, he was down 22 points to Ned Lamont and Malloy went on to beat him in the Democratic primary by 16 points. By the November 1, 2010 survey, Quinnipiac had Foley up 48-45.

Malloy ended up beating Foley by a percentage point, or a few bags of Bridgeport's late-arriving ballot returns. Asked straight up whether he will stand for re-election, Malloy had the answer ready.

"I think the decisions are yet to be made. I'm a governor that got elected to turn the state around," he said. "I've had to make some really tough decisions in doing that. I've also taken on the issue of educational reform, which in some circles makes me popular and in some circles makes me unpopular. I don't shy away from managing on a long-term basis with the hopes that the short term will take care of itself. I don't expect to have any political capital lying around on any given day, week, month, year, term."